Annette Blanchard was born Annette Shapiro at Millard Fillmore Hospital (Gates Circle) in 1936 to parents Helen and William Shapiro. She grew up in Kenmore Village and later Tonawanda. While most of her schooling was in the suburbs, she transferred to North Buffalo's Bennett High School for her last two years of high school, which at that time had a considerable Jewish population – a contrast to the suburbs at the time. After graduating from Bennett High School in Buffalo, NY., Annette studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in retailing. On graduation, she worked in her parents retail business, "Shaws", a name composed of the first letters of each family member (sister Sheila, mother Helen, Annette and father William). A devastating fire almost 15 years later destroyed the family business, although there were attempts to revive it. Eventually, however, Annette went back to college, and retrained in psychology and later gained an MA in Rehabilitation Counseling. She worked in the field of alcoholic addictions and was employed in the ECMC (Erie County Medical Center) outpatient's Division of Chemical Dependency, retiring after 14 years. As of 2012, she teaches at Erie Community College about Substance Abuse.

This collection is mainly a record of Annette Shapiro's roles and membership activities within B'nai B'rith Women's group in various chapters that she became involved in after college and marriage. President and Co-President of women's chapters on three separate occasions, (Balfour, Montefiore and a merged Balfour), she also held other offices and was very involved in the dramatic and cultural life of the chapters, producing plays and skits. Her husband William worked as an attorney but was an active Boy Scout and Cub Master at Temple Beth El, although they affiliated as a family, with Temple Beth Zion.

Although the first permanent chapter of the organization that would eventually spread across the United States and become known as B'nai B'rith Women (BBW) was founded in San Francisco, in 1909, began with the genteel goals of entertainment and sociability, as a movement, BBW would redefine its mission over the intervening decades to a more activist agenda. In addition the uneven and sometimes fractious relationship with B'nai B'rith, American Jewry's oldest and largest fraternal and service organization, no doubt played a part in decisions to establish a separate organization, and then to rename the organization. At first BBW made many attempts for official recognition, but were rebuffed by the men's Grand Lodge. For decades, BBW maintained an "auxiliary" function – entertainment, dances, parties and other social events for single adult members. This was very much in line with sisterhoods and other contemporary voluntary social and charitable associations. Social and cultural activities, however, were part of other philanthropic undertakings - for the elderly, for hospital patients, servicemen and others.

In Buffalo, B'nai B'rith as a men's organization began with the establishment of Montefiore Lodge in 1866. The first women's auxiliary organization officially affiliated with Montefiore Lodge in 1922, but other women's clubs and lodges developed between 1869 and1876, including Sisters of Rebecca Lodge, No. 12, which met once a month in Montefiore Hall, as well as the sickness and benefit lodge, the True Sisters Society (see: Selig Adler and Thomas E. Connelly. From Ararat to Suburbia: The History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1960, p. 120).